‘Text Neck’ is the new in ailment for the tech generation

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Never mind that mobile phones have wreaked havoc in traffic and produced a generation of westerners who can’t endure a moment alone. Now, the devices have generated their own disability: “Text Neck.”

The term was coined by a South Florida chiropractor who defines the condition as: Overuse syndrome involving the head, neck and shoulders, usually resulting from excessive strain on the spine from looking in a forward and downward position at any hand-held mobile device, i.e., mobile phone, video game unit, computer, mp3 player, e-reader. This can cause headaches, neck pain, shoulder and arm pain, breathing compromise, and much more.

People at risk? Those who twist themselves into unnatural contortions in order to use hand-held devices often two at a time.

Dr. Dean Fishman came up with the term after noticing among his patients a fast increase in repetitive stress injuries that he traced to hand-held devices. That’s when he created the Text Neck Institute and registered the Text Neck term.